- Title: Remnants of burst dam that triggered torrent through Libyan city of Derna
- Date: 14th September 2023
- Summary: DERNA, LIBYA (SEPTEMBER 14, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AREA WHERE DAM COLLAPSED COLLAPSED DAM MAN SEEN WALKING IN DISTANCE VARIOUS OF COLLAPSED DAM (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LIBYAN CITIZEN, KHALED Al-Shuwaihed, SAYING: "I didn’t see it, my daughter told me about it, she lives near the dam. When the valley burst, her husband put her on top of a closet, she was holding onto it.
- Embargoed: 28th September 2023 11:26
- Keywords: Dam Derna Flooding Libya
- Location: DERNA, LIBYA
- City: DERNA, LIBYA
- Country: Libya
- Topics: Africa,Disaster/Accidents,Floods
- Reuters ID: LVA001199014092023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Libyan Khaled Al-Shuwaihed wasn’t around when a powerful storm tore through a dam and unleashed a seasonal riverbed, but his daughter who lives nearby told him what happened.
They survived by holding onto furniture as the water rushed through their house, al-Shuwaihed said, and his other daughter on the second floor survived with her children.
But al-Shuwaihed’s friends, including one who was filming when the valley first burst, were not so lucky. He says many people are still unaccounted for.
Confirmed death tolls given by officials so far have varied, but all are in the thousands, with thousands more on lists of the missing.
The head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday (September 14) that casualties could have been avoided if the divided country had a functional weather service able to issue warnings.
(Production: Ayman Sahely, Hani Amara, Seham Eloraby) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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